Strange Results in CA Recall Tulare County...A Possible Explaination

[ISUGRADIA]

Right after the recall there were some posts about weird minor candidate results in some counties, Tulare county in particular had real odd results.

Here's an article I came across with a possible explaination:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/7139166.htm

Excerpts:

...

In these counties, the ballots required voters to fill in an oval to select the candidate of their choice -- and some of the more obscure entries among the 135 candidates running for governor apparently benefited from having their ovals positioned confusingly close to the names of the front-running candidates.

...

But in the counties that used optical scan equipment by Diebold Inc., three obscure candidates -- Ronald Jason Palmieri, Jerry Kunzman and Randall D. Sprague -- got far more votes than they got elsewhere.

Palmieri -- a gay Hollywood attorney -- received 1.44 percent of votes in rural Tulare County -- 36 times greater than the .04 percent of votes he won overall throughout California, despite urging voters on his Web site not to elect him.

...